The mega initial public offering of Life Insurance Corporation of India has kicked off well with the anchor investor portion understood to be over subscribed with bids of over ₹7,000 crore received.
Of the proposed ₹21,000 crore IPO, LIC is looking to raise about ₹5,360 crore through anchor investors at the upper end of the price band.
Sources indicated that anchor investors had bid for twice the size of the book with a lot of interest from sovereign wealth funds as well as domestic mutual funds. At least 20 investors had previously evinced interest.
The bid or offer period for anchor investors opened on Monday.
LIC has reserved 5.92 crore shares for anchor investors in the 22.13 crore shares on offer. In all the Centre will sell 3.5 per cent stake in the life insurer.
The official data on subscription by anchor investors will come late Monday evening.
The LIC IPO, which is the biggest issue in the country, is set to open for investors on May 4 and close of May 9.
The price band has been fixed at ₹902 to ₹949 per equity share.
LIC Chairman MR Kumar had said he expects strong demand from anchor investors as well as retail investors.
Anchor investors are large, institutional investors who invest before the IPO.